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Medabots

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"Then it's agreed! I officially declare this match a submission robattle! As such, I, Mr. Referee, will act as referee so no one gets hurt. Medafighters ready? Medabots... Robattle!"

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Medabots, also known as Medarot, is a Japanese video game franchise that's better known in the States as an anime series. The first game of the series was released in 1997 for the Game Boy and went on to spawn many sequels and spin-offs, as well as the aforementioned anime and a four-volume manga.

The series's main gimmick is that its Medabots are fully customizable. Every Medabot consists of four parts: head, right arm, left arm and legs that can be interchanged between battles (and in the anime, even during them). Every time you win a Robattle, you take one of the opponent's Medaparts, adding to your collection and battle options. Furthermore, every Medabot is powered by a medal, which serves as its brain, and allows it to use powerful moves called Medaforce. Most games are released intwo versions, similar to Pokémon, with certain parts and medals exclusive to one version, encouraging players to trade and battle each other.

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The anime series, which ran for 52 episodes in Japan from 1999 to 2000, is supposed to be about robots who fight each other, but most of the show is just wacky hijinks. It's the heartwarming tale of robot dog fights, ridiculous plot devices and poorly edited on-screen text. It was adapted into English by Nelvana in Canada and shown in the United States on Fox Kids from 2001 to 2002.

In 22nd century Japan, everybody and their grandmother has a Robot Buddy, manufactured by the Medabot Corporation and creatively called Medabots, robots powered by medals which effectively serve as their brains. Ikki Tenryou is a plucky ten year old whose parents won't buy him a Medabot, and he refuses to save his allowance for one. One fateful day, he finds a medal in the river near his house. He takes what little money he does have and buys an extremely outdated model called Metabee from the Hop Mart store clerk Hikaru (Henry in the dub), and promptly activates it. It then proceeds to quite beautifully not work. Up until the point where Ikki calls him a "piece of junk" and quickly realizes why you shouldn't call Metabee that. The worst part is that Ikki can't even eject Metabee's medal to make him stop. The good news, Ikki finally got his Medabot. The bad news, the Medabot has a serious attitude problem. Wacky robot hijinks ensue, including characters with multiple identities, flashbacks, and a Tournament Arc.

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Medabot Spirits (Medarot Damashii), a sequel series that was also dubbed for the States, followed up on the original anime's story, but a majority of the characters from the original were dropped without any explanation, while Ikki and Metabee were given a Next Tier Power-Up. Since Fox Family Worldwide was sold to Disney, this series was broadcast on ABC Family.

For tropes about the game (which also was the only main series game released overseas), click here.

TV Tropes! Ro-Battle!:

Aborted Arc: Subverted. The anime seems to have intended to develop a sub-plot around one of it's Canon Foreigner characters, a Spear Carrier named Brandon, but never got it off the ground. In his main appearance, he mentioned to be The Ace and is the older brother of a classmate of Ikki's; he then appears during the last few seconds of the Takoyaki episode unexpectedly. ...And then he shows up completely without warning during the finale.

The Abridged Series: A rather... surreal one known as Metabridged which re-imagines the series as an attempt to make a web-series.

Absurdly Powerful Student Council: The Student Council in Ikki's school is an averted version of this. Not only the Student Council President's Doctor Study/Dr. Bokchoy lost to Kikuhime/Samantha's Peppercat, and lost their Council Room... they also reccur to Ikki to recover it from them.

Affectionate Nickname: Some characters who have strong friendships with their Medabots, will give them a name, aside from just referring to them as their official serial type/number; the greatest example from the anime is Arika, who calls her SLR-1 Sailor-Multi, "Brass". In games' universe Ikki himself is another great example, as his friendship with Metabee is limited to the medal itself, so the bodies KBT-1 Metabee, KBT-50 Saikichis and KBT-4 Arc-Beetle, are all "Metabee" to him. Kirara is another example carried on in the videogames, since her Sailor-Mate is called "Alumi".

Alternate Continuity: The franchise runs entirely on this. The anime looks like it fused some elements of the first game and Medarot 2. The manga slightly differs, as well, running on the videogames stories' as basis (though they retell the same main plot with alternate settings). Some of the spinoffs are also alternate continuities of each other (Shingata being a retelling of the original game with new characters, Medarot 8 following a more crime and mystery-oriented story, but with Roborobos as villains as well).

And Then What?: When the Rubberrobo Gang tricked Metabee into thinking Ikki abandoned him, they tempted him with a chance to revenge. It wasn't enough as Metabee asked what he'd do after that.

Animation Bump: "Welcome to Ninja World," 7th episode of the second dub season and 14th of the first Japanese season, has a noticeably different art style and animation tone, with the characters moving much more exaggeratedly and the battle being way more dynamic and detailed. Consequently, a good chunk of the English opening uses action scenes from this episode, much more so than any other single episode.

Anti-Climax Boss: Invoked with Baron (the Screws Gang's big boss) and his Medabot, Banisher, who through the episode they appear are made up to be fearsome opponents. The actual robattle ends as soon as Metabee shoots Banisher. Once. (His special ability is having a Strong Appearance). In the games, Banisher could only deal damage by counterattacking, and since Metabee headshot it (and Metabee is deceptively strong), he presumably dealt enough damage to knock him out. (Either that or the robot is just too weak to fight, and Baron instead tries to scare opponents into submission.)

Anti-Hero: Kaitou Retort/Phantom Renegade. Despite being a thief, he has his own motives to rob medals, and he has done some heroic things in the process, such as rescuing Rokusho from the Roborobo/Rubberrobo Gang, and helping out Ikki and his friends in the Final Battle.

In the games, Retort's role plays as a help for the main character (Ikki or Azuma when the former assumes the Kaitou Retort identity) because he also wants to stop the Roborobo (or their later incarnations). Lady Retort/Phantom Lady also falls for being a sidekick of sorts to Retort (though she does not appear in Medarot DS nor Medarot 7).

Art Evolution: From Horumarin's Medarot designs used in the first videogame in 1997, through the manga adaptation and for the next 7 years, his art has changed notoriously. Even more when you see Medarot DS designs that he worked in 2008-2009.

Art Shift: Episode 14 ("Welcome to Ninja World") was drawn and animated in a much different art style. The episode's director was no one other than Hiroyuki Imaishi, of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann fame.

Batman Gambit: Dr. Meta-Evil's ultimate plan to awaken the Medabots' memories of their ancient history is pretty much this. He would need two Medabots possessing rare medals to fight each other to the limit in order to trigger the antenna's radio waves that allow him to control the entire world's Medabots. It is not easy to imagine any realistic scenario how he could plan in such a way that he could anticipate that Victor's Warbandit and Ikki's Metabee will end up fighting each other to their limits.

Betty and Veronica: Hikaru's relationship with Kirara and Nae in Medarot- Kirara is Betty and Nae is Veronica. Of course this change after the events of Medarot 2, since Hikaru is in a relationship with Kirara.

In the games, a Medabot's head and each arm has a unique ability or weapon. The arms can use their respective power or attacks endlessly (e.g. Metabee's revolver and submachinegun), but each Medabot's head has only a limited number of uses for its specific ability.

This is usually faithfully followed in the anime (or, at least, certainly never contradicted, since the Medabots use their Head-part powers only sparingly), but it's Subverted in Spirits, where Medabots spontaneously developed the ability to run out of ammo. The Kilobots and their owners "cheat" by reloading ammunition in the middle of a fight.

Broad Strokes: The original anime is derived from Medarot 2 and the original Medarot games, while Medabot Spirits is a derivative of Medarot 3 (which kind of justifies its more dramatic retooling of the premise).

Broken Ace: Downplayed with Uchuu Medarotter X/Space Medafighter X, who seems pretty copacetic with life. Hikaru Agata was a great medafighter when he was a kid, but when the "Ten Days of Darkness" happened, he not only lost his best friend (Metabee) but his friendship with American representative, Joe Swihan, and Egyptian representative, Patra. He had to lower his profile and became a Convenience Store clerk (and a Phantom Thief). Other incarnations of Hikaru don't play with this trope, though. He is more of a Retired Badass... but people don't believe he was a good medafighter.

To a smaller extent, Cyandog/Krosserdog and Iwanoi/Spike; Cyandog is a poor fighter because his medal isn't of the properly compatible type. A monkey medal, no less.

Mr. Referee, somehow, is never hurt by any of his own antics.

While the Rubberrobo gang have their moments, Seaslug was the one that took the cake too many times, mostly since he was the leader of his squad, becoming one of the reasons he was then demoted from this role.

Canon Discontinuity: Medarot Damashii has some problems regarding its predecessor series' canon. There is not a clear explanation nor mention of what happened with the World Tournament, or the dissapearance of some of the supporting cast or any of the events of the Grand Finale. And it gets more confusing to the International viewers because the original series contained an epilogue in the ED sequence of the last episode (which only details that Hikaru leaves). The Spirits ED sequence have cameos of the previous series characters (and even Kirara who was Adapted Out from the anime), but it was directed by the previous character designer of the anime that little to nothing was involved in Spirits, and considering that these ED sequences aren't completely canon with their anime...

Inverted during the Tournament Arc, when the identity of Space Medafighter X is used by several different people to act as the third member of team Japan. This is probably cheating, but whatever.

Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: Team France in the World Medabot Championship. They apparently won all of their matches by default by having their opponents kidnapped, and as soon as Team Japan manages to break out of their kidnapping and actually fight them Team France runs away.

Chekhov's Gun: Every single medapart that Metabee wins, can serve as part of a fighting strategy later.

In Episode 8, Metabee wins a Decoy Claw from Norbert's Kuraba, a Medapart that's effective for hand to hand combat - which makes it a perfect match for Cyandog's Monkey medal.

The Invisiarm he wins from Multikolor in Episode 17 allows him to counter Sumilidon's Shadow Sword attack in Episode 34.

The web shooting arm won in Episode 20 comes in handy in Episode 32, when Metabee sticks down one of Shrimplips' Medabots, meaning it couldn't dodge an incoming attack from one of it's teammates - funny, considering Ikki won the part from Shrimplips in the first place.

Collective Identity: Space Medafighter X is a registered member of Team Japan for the world cup, but circustances preclude him from making proper appearances. So Ikki's friends and the Screws take turn wearing Paper Thin Disguises of his outfit.

Combat and Support: Medabots and their Medafighters make a pretty obvious pair of this, but there are several tiers of this, such as Dr. Aki and the Medabot Corporation being support to heroic Robattling teams.

Combat by Champion: In "Ban All Medabots", some Medabots owned by punks broke into the school the main characters attend. When the students called their medabots to defend it, an all-on-all battle ensued until Rokusho interrupted it and suggested each side selected a champion to have less wounded than an all-on-all fight would have.

Combat Referee: Mr. Referee, naturally. As mentioned elsewhere on the page, it's advised against attacking him on the grounds that he has access to a Kill Sat that will shoot a tranquilizer dart at the offender. Seaslug, of course, learned this the hard way.

The videogames led first to the creation of a manga adaptation published by the defunct Comic Bon Bon, running in type I and II. The original main series was drawn by Horumarin, the characters' designer of the original games. Medarot DS was later published by Dengeki Nintendo for Kids.

A manga tie-in for Medarot 7 was being published, now by Shueisha, in Saikyo JUMP and V-Jump, drawn by Yasuki Tanaka.

Confusion Fu: Space Medafighter X's shtick... sort of. The real X's Arcbeetle is simply ferociously powerful, but during the Tournament Arc a different Medafighter impersonates him in each round, making his strategy difficult to predict as "he" brings a different Medabot to each match.

Continuity Reboot: Medarot 7 reboots everything that happened in Medarot DS (even if it carries a "7" as serial number). It is explicitely established that whoever Azuma gets on either version of the game (Metabee or Rokusho in Kabuto or Kuwagata, respectively) is his first medabot.

Dr. Aki is a fairly self-aware example, clearly under the impression that he is at least as cool as everyone thinks he is.

Mr. Referee's absolute dedication to his job has earned him many a fan.

The school principal really, really wants to be this (He's hip. He gets it.), and he does get a moment or two; his medabot Samurai is a good example, too.invoked

Crack Is Cheaper: According to the anime, medabots are pretty expensive to get and maintain. Getting a tin PET is one thing... getting a medal is another AND getting the armor (or even replacements of some armor parts) is a complete different story. Apparently, according to the manga adaptation of the videogames, finding a female tin PET is rare, and purposely more expensive to get. invoked

Subverted in the games, where Medabot parts all perfectly in range of a child's allowance, ranging from four to less than twenty dollars in most cases.

Also subverted in the anime with Metabee, whose armor was not only old but discontinued; Henry only offered to sell the parts to Ikki in consideration of the fact that Ikki was too impatient to save his allowance for anything worthwhile. Ikki also tends not to buy new parts, rather using the spare parts he's earned elsewhere and maintaining Metabee's parts himself.

Crazy-Prepared: Karin can be a nice little Moe, but she's always ready if you need to climb a wall, cross a bridge taken by a bully or even blow up a security door.

It Runs in the Family because in the first season finale, Karin's uncle, Dr. Aki knew that Dr. Meta-Evil would use a giant Medabot to conquer the world. So, he secretly constructed a giant Metabee.

Crippling Overspecialization: Played for Laughs in Spirits. Kilobots have no non-violent abilities or programming, so if you need to do something like, say, halt a speeding truck to keep yourself from falling out of the back, your kilobot will be unable to help you — "stop the truck" isn't an attack. Seems to become subverted after this incident as the Kilobots begin getting smart enough to at least speak whole sentences, most likely because Kam wouldn't be able to sell them if they seemed too dangerous.

Cultural Translation: Borders on Gag Dub at times. Notable in that most characters' names were kept, and the location of the show was clearly stated to be Japan in the dub. (Amusingly, the localized Medabots GBA game pretends the main characters are all American).

Curse Cut Short: In Episode 6, where Metabee is tied up to attract aliens for Erika's news story.

Metabee: I'm gonna get sassy on your-

(cut to Henry's shop)

Henry: -bad mode central.

Cutting Off the Branches: While most games come in both Kabuto and Kuwagata versions, the anime assumes Kabuto as a starting point, allying Ikki and Metabee.

Darker and Edgier: Sort of a mix in Medabots: Spirits when compared to the original series. The original series features the Rubberrobo gang and Dr. Meta-evil, stealing medals as part of a global domination plan. The revelation of the truth behind the Ten Days of Darkness was the darkest moment in the entire anime series. While it is true that Medabots: Spirits involved smaller and more personal stakes, as a result of that, the villains (Especially Kam) were portrayed as particularly mean-spirited. Unlike the Rubberrobo gang who were practically medal thieves, Kam had no qualms with destroying his opponents' medals, an event that was only invoked once in the original series.

Rokusho gets his own spotlight episode in "I Dream of Hushi", where we learn about his past and helps a widow defend her husband's Oak Tree with Ikki and Metabee as supporting characters.

Both Spike and Cyandog have their own spotlight episode in "Cyandog Bites Back".

Delinquents: The Screws gang. While their former boss is the most classic example of a Banchou.

Demoted to Extra: When Medarot 2 was released and it was put into a Time Skip of twelve years by the end of the events of the first game, Hikaru and Kirara were demoted as side-characters to make room for Ikki and co. Meanwhile other characters were put to Out of Focus, Hikaru served as a clerk and mentor to Ikki, while Kirara was put in the Medarot Corporation (and both take the identities of phantom thieves, Kaitou Retort and Lady Retort). This formula got repeated when Medarot DS was released to make room for Azuma, as the new main character, while Ikki and Arika became supporting characters.

Horumarin has been the primary art director for the Medabots themselves throughout the franchise's history, so the bots all tend to look the same in most installments. He also designed the humans in the many of the pre-DS games and their respective manga adaptations (he returned to robot design for Medarot 7).

Tokuyuki Matsutake, on the other hand, was the primary designer for the anime and related media, and his designs were used for the graphics in Medarot 3 and Medarot 4, too.

Medarot 7 introduced a new artist for the humans. Check out art for Ikki, Arika, and the Rubberrobo Gangnote Adjusted for a few years of growth, of course from the game, for example. And then compare it to the art of the same from Medarot DS (yikes!).

Medarot Navi's primary artist used much more detailed designs for the robots; notably, he was also the main artist for the Medarotter Rintarou side story manga.

Deserted Island: In the manga adaptation of Medarot 2, the final battle between Dr. Hebereke and Ikki and friends happens in an Island that was formerly a property of the Select Corps.

Did We Just Have Tea with Cthulhu?: During the lead-up to the final round of the tournament, Chidori accidentally meets Victor when her car soaks him with a splash of rain water, and she insists on making it up to him by doing the cleaning herself. Ikki comes home later and finds Victor sitting at his table in heart-print pajamas while his mom is serving dinner. In an attempt at making conversation, Chidori does a little bragging on Ikki's behalf, talking about how he's in the world cup and that he'll easily beat whats-his-name in the finals, so they might as well celebrate early. And then she learns that Ikki's opponent's name is Victor, who also happens to be the guest; she promptly excuses herself from the house to go run errands.

Later, Spirits attempted to undo this by "explaining" that Metabee's Medaforce had been too weak and now might now actually do some damage to Kilobots. They successfully manage to do 1% damage to Redrun's head. It's then subverted later when all attempts to use the Medaforce later on do major levels of damage, as a team or alone.

Disproportionate Retribution: One episode has a group of old women want to round up the Medabots of every kid in school. They were manipulated by one... simply because the Roborobo gang ran over one's beauty products. Once the rest found out that they did all that work just to get revenge for 40 bucks of beauty supplies they turned on her.

Divergent Character Evolution: Downplayed. Originally, the Metabee and Rokusho from Medarot 2 were the same as the original Metal Beetle (KBT-0) and Head Scissors (KWG-0) models in Medarot. Later materials differentiated them as independent units in the same production line, KBT-1 and KWG-1.

Doujinshi: While there is always the usual that the fandom do, there is some special credit to Meda 2043, drawn by the game's designer/manga artist Horumarin under the pseudonym of Horu0rin. It was made around 2007-2008 when the Medarot franchise was in limbo.

Nelvana, in an attempt to streamline the first portion of the story, siphoned thirteen episodes that it considered filler out of place and dumped them back into the plot after the Big Bad's first major gambit, causing more than a few continuity issues. This resulted in (A) Metabee having parts he was never shown earning in battle, (B) the "short" recess before the World Tournament, (C) some random appearances of Rokusho that have little to do with his by-then-established role in the plot, (D) misplacing the formal introduction of the Roborobo Gang (which felt especially out of place since they were already well-known villains), and (E) the sudden dissapearance of recently introduced concepts and supporting characters.

Nelvana discovered a little belatedly all the details of Henry's significance to the plot, and so tripped over themselves during the final stages of the World Tournament arc, establishing a retcon that Henry is an assumed name and that he named Metabee (in the dub's first episode, Ikki names Metabee himself); this is especially apparent in episode 46.

Dub Name Change: There are countless examples, going from medabots and characters, but here are some examples-

Arika = Erika

The Screws, Kikuhime, Iwanoi, and Kagiyama, became Samantha, Spyke, and Sloan respectively

Evolution Power-Up: Medabot parts don't "evolve", but the medals themselves do. The anime doesn't really pay much attention to it (Metabee's medal evolves when he gains access to the Medaforce, but Henry claims that all medals can change like that), but in the games, a medal's evolution usually means a new Medaforce attack for it to use.

Most Medabots in the same "family" (KBT-types, for example) clearly share similar designs. This is justified on the grounds that they're all in the same production line.

Sumilidon and Warbandit stand out as Expies of Rokusho and Metabee respectively, reinterpreted as Panthera Awesome. Sumilidon uses a blade attack and a hammer attack, but trades Rokusho's scouting ability for an anti-gunner trapping ability; Warbandit has both a rifle and a chain gun like Metabee, but instead of an extra attack like Metabee's missiles, he has the ability to boost his movement speed.

Rintarou's Kentaroth is another model in the KBT line close to Metabee's design, and caused some confusion when Rintarou got into fights with everyone around town. Ikki is incensed to learn that people think he's been brutalizing everybody's Medabots, especially since Kentaroth is covered into designs that Metabee doesn't share.

Roks in Spirits looks enough like Rokusho (who had been Put on a Bus) to invite confusion; that he has the same Voice Actor and Leitmotif doesn't help. It gets even worse later on, when several Kilobots end up being pretty blatant redesigns of season 1 and 2 'bots Sumilidon, Warbandit, Arcbeetle and others. Justified as in the games, they're all later models of these medabots.

In the games, this is a Must-Rule, since it is an RPG, and it's somehwat in the same veins as the Pokémon games. Especially in the trio of troublemakers. Kikuhime, Iwanoi and Kageyama from Medarot 2 and the anime) are these to Iseki, Yanma and Kubota from the original Medarot game (this also includes their respective medabots!). This is also repeating in Medarot DS, with the Willows and even Azuma takes the role of ther leader later in that game!.

Fanboy: Rintarou is an illustrative example in the anime. He is mostly an Space Medafighter X fan... to the point that he gets annoying. He was also the only one to guess at the first time that X was Hikaru Agata, because he was also a fan of him before being a medarotter... however, without implying that he was also Hikaru-nii-chan... hilarity ensues.

Flashback: There are plenty of examples. Which includes Rokusho's Memories with his master, Professor Hushi, and any flashback involving the "Ten Days of Darkness".

Freak Out: In Episode 24, Koji's fear of bugs manages to go overboard after bumping into a whole hoard of the critters and he pretty much freaks the hell out and orders Sumilidon to attack anything which so much looks like a bug which, unfortunately, appears to be everything Koji sees in this state.

Freudian Excuse: After his mom died when he was little and his father put more importance into his work rather than spending time with him, Kam is driven to create the most strongest Kilobots.

Fun Size: Three foot tall robots. Justified in that Robattling is treated as a competitive sport; any Medabot larger than human size is fairly obviously a weapon of war.

Furry Reminder: Downplayed. The medals almost all correlate to some animal or another and every now and again will feature some indication of it in Medabot behavior.

The anime loves playing with the fact the Metabee's a rhinoceros beetle (kabutomushi). Henry tricks him at one point by setting a trap with the watermelon as bait and Metabee can't help but crawl eagerly towards it on all fours. When especially angry or upset, Metabee will also make a squeaking "Gigi! Gigigigigigi!!" noise. In the past, he also had a favorite tree.

In one episode of the anime, Spike (of the Screws) is having problems winning with his Medabot, Cyandog. This turns out to be because Cyandog's body is built to be a Long-Range Fighter, but Cyandog's medal is actually a Monkey-type, which is suited to grappling battlesnote According to the dub, at least; in the games, MNK medals are about disrupting enemies (Spike chooses to keep this the way it is). Monkey-Dog enmity is a longstanding item in Japanese Animal Jingoism.

Gainax Ending: The ending of the pre-Spirits anime. The final stages of the Tournament Arc are complicated by hints about the Ten Days of Darkness and the origins of the Medabots themselves, and Metabee has a dream of his own past... and then Dr. Hushi shows up in the middle of it, revealing that he is not dead in the slightest and has somehow created an utopia for medabots in an alien spaceship. Dr. Meta-Evil proceeds to recycle his Humongous Medabot plan with the hilariously out-of-place Babyblu (which looks — and sounds — like a giant blue baby), which Dr. Aki counters with a made-to-order Humongous Metabee piloted by Metabee and his friends, with obligatory Power of Friendship chatter. Also, Brandon, an almost never-seen character whose sole addition to the show was to be the crush-object of two different girls in filler episodes, reappears and turns out to be an alien. All these events go completely unmentioned in the next season.

Gentleman Thief: Phantom Renegade is a parody of these characters, especially KaitouKid and Tuxedo Kamen. His manga counterpart's suit gives a Shout-Out to Kamen at least in design... Replace Kaitou's facemask with Kamen's domino mask, throw in a rose for flavor, and voilá.

Furthermore, in the second episode, Metabee finds a watermelon in his way. He suddenly can't resist temptation and crawls over to it while laughing, "kekekeke!" Did we mention Metabee has an African-American voice actor? Of course, this is covered over with Metabee being a beetle-type medabot who can't resist watermelons and sounds like a beetle.

Chidori, Ikki's mom. To illustrate — her lazy son won't get out of bed. Solution? Get in bed with him (and make the sweetest face in history). Amazingly, it worked.

The Screws gang was introduced as if they would become Ikki's recurring antagonists, but quickly devolved into the butt of jokes and (mostly) a punching bag for other Medafighters after the 2nd episode. As a bonus, Samantha was regularly portrayed as a sycophant.

Interesting, inverted with the Rubberrobo gang. They are practically the Medabots' more threatening version of Team Rocket, and over time it is shown that they had higher goals (Their true leader Dr. Meta-evil, at least) of world domination and their threat level actually went up as the series goes by.

Gotta Catch 'Em All: The franchise somehow manages to make this classic Mons trope both a central mechanic and completely optional at the same time. Major robattles usually require the ante of one Medapart to the winner of the match, but they're only potential tactical options; there's no requirement or insistence that every part of every model be collected. As the dub put it:

Guile Hero: Downplayed with Chidori Tenryou, who uses her wiles mostly to get her "children" (the family basically adopted Metabee) to do what she wants. In addition to the Getting Crap Past the Radar example above, she's been known to get the boys to stop fighting by either "weeping openly" or smothering them with kisses.

Guns vs. Swords: The KBT series and KWG series of medals represent the respective sides. (Technically, the original Rokusho has a hammer in his other arm, but his signature weapon is clearly his Blade Below the Shoulder).

Headbutting Heroes: One of Team Japan's problems early in the World Tournament is that Ikki and Koji both want to be leader.

Healing Factor: In the games, Metabots are constantly renewing damaged body parts by using nanomachines. In the anime, the parts must be maintenanced by the Medafighter himself.

At one point, Ikki and Metabee were confronted by a challenger using a draconic Medabot called Spitfire, which is able to regenerate its damaged bodyparts in the middle of combat, making it very difficult to defeat. Because Spitfire's eyes would glow every time it used its regeneration, Ikki correctly deduced that the healing module is situated in the head, allowing Metabee to destroy the tough enemy.

Victor, who was in the Tournament to take revenge of what happened to his village in the "Ten Days of Darkness"... with the help of the Roborobo, realizes his mistakes when he discovers that their leader was the one responsible for all that.

Kam from Spirits. After all of the trouble he caused, Metabee, Roks, Arc-Dash, Tyrrellbeetle, and Blakbeetle (as Gryphon) save him from the fire in his father's company building that he caused. While at the hospital, everyone, including Blakbeetle, not only forgive him, but it looks like they will become his friends.

Ikki has Salty in both the anime and videogames. Hikaru had Bonaparte at least in the first videogame (and manga adaptation).

Another example is Spike and his Medabot Cyandog/Krosserdog, who ironically is powered by a monkey medal.

He Who Must Not Be Seen: Dr. Meta-Evil, until episode 38. Which was subverted at the end of the episode. Where we discover that the Dr. Meta-Evil we saw was a robotic duplicate. The real Dr. Meta-Evil won't show up until episode 50.

History Repeats: After the events of his own childhood, Ikki too begins to work at a convenience store.

I Need to Go Iron My Dog: (English dub only) When Ikki, Erika and Metabee pretended to be students of Rosewood Academy (a private school for rich kids) to sneak in there and the doorman asked why they weren't wearing their uniforms, they told the doorman that they spilled caviar on it and their butler would bring them later. The Screws tried the same excuse but their leader ruined it by stating they spilled caviar on their butler.

Identity Amnesia: While every medal is the brain of a Medabot, it's a plot point that the anime's "Rare" medals are actually artifacts not made by human hands. And yet, none of the known Rare Medals ever seems to have any further information to provide on the subject. It comes to light during the finale that the Medabots were originally a utopian society that got caught up in excessive warfare that continued to grow and grow until it consumed an entire galaxy. Metabee's personal backstory is especially poignant — he's heavily implied to have been the winner.

Identity Impersonator: When Space Medafighter X's identity as Kaitou Retort/Phantom Renegade was blown up, not only the select Corps increased their security for the tournament, but he couldn't just get out of the it because the rules established that if one of the contestants of any team was absent it would be an immediate disqualification. This meant trouble for both Dr. Akihabara and Hikaru. The best solution was that Hikaru would be calling anyone of the kids to take his X identity during the matches (and decided to be at the event as well as a clerk to not rise any suspicious behavior). While X was present at the day of the match of Japan vs USA, those that were with the mask were Karin, the Screws and Ms. Caviar.

Idol Singer: The Sweden Team, the Charming Musume (probably a parody to Morning Musume) who are the non-Japanese example in the series, who were doing trap thanks to their... well, charms. Until... you know...

Image Song: Though "Chie to Yuuki da! Medarot" and "Yappari Kimi ga Suki!" are the respective opening and ending of the original Medarot series, they are also sung by Metabee and Arika's voice actors, and they could be considered image songs of them. The series also counted with several releases of character songs: Karin, Rokusho, while the Screws, Ikki & Metabee and the Roborobos also had theirs.

Implausible Synchronicity: At one point Kam doctors footage of a fight between Metabee and his Kilobot to make it look like Metabee was cheating. The footage of the fight was broadcast live, but due to the doctoring it was delayed a minute. His plot was uncovered when Arika points out to everyone watching that the timestamp on the footage was one minute behind the "actual" time.

Incoming Ham: Phantom Renegade and Phantom Lady own this in the games.

Phantom Renegade:Set the table with finery.

Phantom Lady:Let the flower of rice bloom!

Inverted in the anime, where Renegade's actually more of an Stage-Exiting Ham instead, covering his escapes with explosions.

Informed Attribute: Space Medafighter X goes out of his way to teach Kouji and Sumilodon how to use the Shadow Sword, which is touted as an ability that can counter the Medaforce... and then Ikki finds a way to overcome it in its debut match. Indeed, Sumilodon's "specialty" is never seen to work as advertised; it could be that Kouji keeps misusing it on non-Medaforce opponents (some of whom even block it) or even that X is simply using Kouji as part of a gambit meant to get Ikki to keep from relying solely on the Medaforce and to start thinking tactically again (which is the actual result of the episode).

Japanese Beetle Brothers: Rivals type. Almost every game in the franchise comes in Kabuto (Metabee) and Kuwagata (Rokusho) versions, with each version dictating the hero's partner. You'll see it in the anime, too. In addition, Arcbeetle, based on the Hercules beetle, can be seen as an honorary third brother of sorts.

In the manga, when a medabot releases its Medaforce, it becomes Ax-Crazy and (sometimes) mindless, as if they are possessed by something.

Kleptomaniac Hero: Ikki mostly averts it in the games. Rather than provide inconsequential fluff text for scenery like most other RPGs would, the game has Ikki remind himself to "stop acting like a thief".

In the games, Medaforce attacks are learned and mastered when a medal reaches a certain level and evolves (not unlike Pokémon), and usually come in sets of three specific to the medal type. Unlike normal attacks, these powers can only be used by charging a sufficient level of Medaforce, but they are also immune to counters and traps.

In the anime, the Medaforce is reserved only for robots with Rare Medals. Attacking sinks all the robot's energy into one strike, but the attack is very risky. During its debut, it's established that the user can't fight after losing their power, leaving them defenseless. In some cases, using it may even damage the Medabot's own body. Also, unlike in the games, a robot using the Medaforce does notmaster it immediately, Metabee was unable to use it except in times of great need, though eventually he became able to invoke it freely.

In the manga this is played... awfully. Not only does the Medaforce absorb all energy of the medabot's, but they suffer backlash from it that might destroy them (it boils them if it's not controlled). Not mentioning all the jazz about them becoming Ax-Crazy and mindless.

Sumilidon taps into it during the penultimate fight in the Tournament Arc, earning an Oh, Crap! reaction from pretty much everyone. It happens again during the final against Team Kenya, but Warbandit survives it by using Rhinorush as a shield.

Little Miss Con Artist: In episode 41, our heroes in Team Japan see a cute little girl (named Kahlua in the Japanese version, and Coconut in the English dub) being attacked by Team Caribbean pirates led by Captain Gene, since they're accusing her of stealing their chocolate. Naturally our heroes come to the little girl's defense, and she fawns over and hero-worships them for saving her. Out of the goodness of their hearts, our heroes even invite the little girl to watch their training session and give her their autographs. Then when Team Japan is set to Robattle Team Caribbean, the little girl appears behind Captain Gene, and at first Metabee assumes Captain Gene must have captured her. Nope, actually she's Captain Gene's daughter; the pirates were only pretending to attack the little girl earlier, it was all a plan for her to spy on Team Japan so she can report their weaknesses to her father and give him an edge.

The Robattle Association doesn't count repeat Robattles when calculating a Medafighter's battle score... but it does count the different guises any Medafighter might assume as independent Medafighters entirely. So this causes Ikki all sorts of trouble when the Rubber Robo Gang bosses start challenging him under their civilian identities.

The American team reveals late in the World Tournament that they've developed a variant of Medawatch transport technology that allows their robots Teleport Spam abilities. Dr. Aki admits that it's technically allowable on the grounds that the technology is still too new to have had any official rules handed down against it.

Love Dodecahedron: The Ikki-era Love Triangle (Erika secretly likes Ikki who has a crush on Karin) is complicated by Koji, who also likes Karin and considers Ikki a rival for her affections. This is further complicated by Samantha's gushing admiration for Kouji in the anime and, in the games, Princess Margarita gaining her own crush on Ikki, though nothing's likely to come of it for... reasons. And then, according to Medabot Spirits, Ikki gets a different crush on Nae.

Love Triangle: Most if not all of the main series games have a Love Triangle centered on the each of the four main protagonists. Depending on your choices during gameplay, you can usually choose which girl you have a Relationship Upgrade with.

In the first game, Hikaru could choose between Kirara and Nae, but later canon says that he ended up with Kirara.

MacGuffin: The Rare-Medals in the anime. They are described to be from an ancient civilization of Medabots eons ago. Also, Rare-Medals have the ability to give Medabots a power known as the Medaforce. The only Medabots known to possess Rare-Medals are Metabee, Rokusho, Arc-Beetle, and Warbandit.

MacGuffin Melee: The introductory scene of the anime is the Rubber Robo Gang's attempt to steal a Rare Medal being interrupted by Phantom Renegade.

Screws gangleader Samantha is much more prone to violent outbursts then, er, anyone.

Masquerading As the Unseen: Ikki and Koji are expected to represent Japan in an international Robattle tournament alongside Space Medafighter X, but X never turns up for any of the matches. To avoid disqualification, they have their friends dress as X and substitute for him, which works because the only thing anyone knows about Space Medafighter X is that his true identity is a mystery and he always wears a mask.

Meaningful Name: Doubles because of the Theme Naming but the real names of the Roborobo gang in the Japanese version and English Dub happens to be punnames of their aliases.

Megaton Punch: DVL models are incredibly strong and destructive, and in the games are reserved as Elite Mooks. In the anime, Belzelga (DVL-2) is a Super Prototype capable of wrecking almost any Medabot with just one punch, which makes it a perfect target for the Rubberrobo Gang. Blackram (DVL-1) should be capable of similar feats, but the only two to appear in the anime are subjected to The Worf Effect in Metabee's debut episode.

Mind Screw: The season finale for the original series, which involves two different alien races and a Humongous Mecha in the shape of a fetus.

Mon: Mostly Type I with a few shades of Type II. Medabots is a clear example of Follow the Leader, since Medarot (1) (Game Boy) was released a year after Pokémon Red & Green. Unlike most Mon games, however, the franchise instead focuses on collecting parts that you can swap in to create a Mix-and-Match Man out of your original bot; the games also offer romantic sub-plots for the main character, something you don't see in Pokémon (until Gen V & VI games, where it is at least implied).

The anime is a clear follower, with Ikki usually avoiding the whole mix-and-match mechanic unless a specific strategy calls for it or when he doesn't have Metabee's parts at hand.

My Little Panzer: You have preteens playing around with robots whose firepower can crater steel and smash concrete and some of them (lookin' at you, Metabee) have no qualms about firing on their controllers. How is this kid-safe again?

Mysterious Protector: Phantom Renegade's constant intersections with the Rubber Robo gang allow him to play this for Ikki and company, especially in the games. Phantom Lady plays it for Ikki against the Select Corps.

National Stereotypes: About two-thirds of the representative teams in the World Championship are full of these (medabots included!). The anime basically just picked a random theme and ran with it.

The Mexico team consists of the Amigo brothers, three sombrero-wearing hombres who carry guitars and have machine-gun cactus-bots for partners. About the only thing they say aside from "Amigo!" is when greeting people. "Saludo!" If you want, you could interpret that as a Shout-Out to Saludos Amigos.

The French are thieving Dirty Cowards, each with a Maurice Chevalier Accent. They kidnap their opponents in every match so that they win by default, and when they do try and fight, they get their butts handed to them.

Team Iceland gets a pass for being the most developed of the teamsnote Team Kenya doesn't count, as Team Kenya basically amounts to Victor plus Two Flunkies, but consists of a trio of Nice Guys who like fishing, and their leader, Brenton, is introduced when he strikes a hot spring. Incidentally, Erika gets a massivePrecocious Crush on him, Played for Drama rather than laughs.

Metabee undergoing an Evolution Powerup and using the Medaforce for the first time, which also kicks off the anime's first major arc.

Kouji attempts to earn one for Sumilodon with the Shadow Sword, not that it's ever shown to work. Sumilodon later gets the Extreme Shadow Sword as a personal Medaforce attack.

In Spirits, Metabee ends up being upgraded from his original KBT-1 body (Metabee) to a KBT-5 body (Saikachis, though still called "Metabee"). This can get confusing, since Spirits also features Roks (KWG-5), as an Expy of the original anime's Rokusho (KWG-1) (with the same voice actor, no less).

No Mouth: Most, if not all, medabots. The main cast alone can fill this.

A rare robot example. Robo-Emperor's design has more in common with an EVA unit than a regular Medabot.

Rintarou, but that is more in the side of being a Canon Immigrant of Medarot R for both the anime and the main serial manga adaptation.

Numbered Sequels: The main series. Medarot (1) through 5; while it is not officially claimed as such, Medarot DS could be considered 6, Medarot 7 (A Continuity Reboot of DS) and Medarot 8 (not completely affiliated to the serials' canon as Medarot Dual, but).

Ocular Gushers: And Metabee doesn't even have real eyes to do it with!

Off-Model: Several times throughout the series, the human characters' hands switch between five and four fingered hands due to the (rather) blobby art style. This is more noticeable in Damashii, thanks to the change of the animation studios.

Oh, Crap!: Dr. Meta-Evil's reaction to when the giant Metabee was about to ram him in the season finale.

Mr. Referee pops out from a random place and does his standard pre-battle speech, as seen at the top. This includes; coming out of the ocean, flying down from a helicopter/airplane, crawling up a burning rooftop, and already appearing to begin with.

Also, the chicken-seller, whose sales pitch is inevitably mistaken for Yoda-esque wisdom. He upgrades to rabbits for the final arc of the first season.

One Game for the Price of Two: The games play this straight, then subvert it with the Parts Collections. The Parts Collection games were Gaiden Games with slightly different rules (normally winning a match gets you 1 randomly-selected part the opponent used, in Parts Collection you get a complete set of parts for a specific bot) designed specifically to get around the obstacle of not knowing anyone with the other edition.

One of the Kids: Hikaru plays straight this in both the anime and the videogames.

In the anime it is assumed he is in his late-teens (there is not an official age given) but since he has been interacting with young medarotters at the Hopmart, he sometimes acts like someone of their age.

In Medarot 2, after being demoted from the main protagonist, he is described as in being in his early 20s, studying for college, trying to balance his love relationship with Kirara, working parttime in the Convenience Store, being a Phantom Thief at night... and overall, he still likes to play with medabots.

Out of Focus: In Medarot 5, Ikki and co. are put through this to make much more focus to a new protagonist. However, the game still develops around the same town as Ikki's adventures went through in Medarot 2 - 4 and about some months later after the events of Medarot 4. This was the first game since Medarot 2 to use a new protagonist.

The Phantom Renegade, whichever incarnation of him it is, should be immediately recognizable by his hairstyle, which is usually unhidden. The first Renegade pulls this off slightly better, as Renegade II has a head full of Anime Hair.

Exaggerated and parodied with Space Medafighter X, whose mask is almost identical to Phantom Renegade's, but in a nice golden hue. Not one member of the cast is able to make this connection until X takes a hit in the face and his mask splits open... to reveal the Renegade's mask directly beneath it. All this silliness actually helps distract from the fact that Henry is in fact legendary Medafighter Hikaru Agata, especially in the Japanese original, where Henry's name is still Hikaru.

Ikki Tenryou was a part of the DLC in Medarot Dual (look at the selection marked 5 to see him standing next to Arika). If you'll look at other selections on the page, you'll see two other figures with a very familiar hairstyle.

Paper Tiger: Banisher, the robot of the Screws' ex-leader Baron Von Banish, looks big and tough, to the point that its "special attack" is said to be its "strong appearance". However, when put in an actual battle, Metabee drops it in one shot before it can do anything. In the games, Banisher is based on using counterattacks, so presumably Metabee critically injured its head before it got a chance to use any counterattacks.

Averted, especially in the manga. The Select Corps are always behind the strange stuff that happen in the city, such as the presence of the Roborobos or Kaitou Retort doing his stuff. While the police is always there protecting the city and the country, the chief almost all the time gets stressed by these happenings...

In the anime series, on the other hand, they only show when serious stuff REALLY happens. When the Roborobos (the mooks, especially) or Kaitou Retort (being a well known thief) get serious, of course.

In the games, however, it's played straight. The Select Corps aren't particularly shown to be that useless or harmful, but they constantly fail to achieve anything, tend to be a massive inconvenience, and the chief will often take credit for busts and successes he had absolutely nothing to do with.

"Metabee" (and other several medabots) has also a bit of this. In Medarot (1), it's the portmanteau nickname of "Metal Beetle", the first model of KBT used in the franchise, but when Medarot 2 is released, Metabee is used as the name of a new model of KBT. In the anime, since there is no original model of KBT (and KWG) used in the first game, Hikaru goes with the name of Metabee's model as "Metal Beetle", and lately named it as "Metabee".

Previous Player-Character Cameo: Hikaru, main character of the original Medarot games, shows up in games where Ikki is the main character as a convenience store clerk in college. Ikki does the same after he grows up.

Rainbow Pimp Gear: Medabot arms and legs are detachable, and in addition the loser of a battle must give a part of his bot to the winner. Thus, occasionally one might see Medabots with mismatched arms and legs that don't fit the body at all, either for strategic reasons or because they lost the original parts to someone.

Rescue Arc: The Rubberrobo gang takes two hostages near and dear to Ikki in the lead-up to the big bad's first major gambit, one right after the other. The second one necessitates Ikki's friends and even the Screws coming together to form a Badass Crew.

Metabee and Rokusho (and their myriad alternates and upgrades) are often presented as this, dueling or competing in opening cutscenes or promotional materials.

Medarot 2 introduced Sumilidon and Warbandit as Kouji's main Medabot; he has the saber-tooth tiger Sumilidon in Metabee version and king lion Warbandit in the Rokusho version. Since the anime took Metabee version as its basis, Kouji stuck with Sumilidon and Warbandit ended up with Victor of Team Kenya.

Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Due to a series of accidents with a Batman Gambit thrown in: Karin finds Rokusho's old friend. Rokusho asks to help the parrot just before seeing it's Baton, who was one of Dr Hushi's creations. Karin and Rokusho go to Dr. Aki, who was one of Hushi's assistances, and see if they can fix Baton with Aki's technology. Upon partically fixing Baton, Baton's memory kicks in and Rokusho hears that it was Aki who burned Hushi's home to the ground. Aki runs in with an axe on accident to alert Karin that Rubber-Robo Members were stalking around the house. Cue rampage with paranoia.

Robot Buddy: The main idea of the show. In the anime, the main cast are all arranged in individual Medafighter-Medabot pairs that highlight a specific relationship between them; in the games, the Medabots have no established personality at all and are usually arranged into teams of "Leader Medabot and two supporting Medabots". (The anime usually chooses the leader Medabot to be the anime partner).

Robot War: The "Ten Days of Darkness", an event where nearly every Medabot in the world went crazy and almost destroyed it, eight years ago. This event almost repeated itself if it wasn't for the efforts of Ikki and Metabee.

Mr. Referee, who always manages to always be where the principal characters are in order to officiate the robottle about to happen. A few occasions, he also appears in a fitting guise or place. It's lampshaded in the Tournament Arc when the WMF announcer cites this as what Mr. Referee is known for.

Ikki: "I wonder what he does when he isn't refereeing..."

No matter how awesome his heists are, Phantom Renegade is almost incapable of pulling one off without goofing something up; he'll get distracted and do things like drop his loot or bash his head on something hard. He's like a gymnast who can't stick the landing.

Ship Sinking: In the games' universe this happens at least twice. Hikaru has a close relationship with Nae and Kirara in Medarot, but canon-speaking, he ends up with Kirara in Medarot 2. In Medarot DS, after long 9 years of absence since Medarot 4, it is implied that Ikki maybe does not show so much of feelings towards Arika, besides being 'friends... it is justified, though, since they were sided as helping characters rather than protagonists, and Karin does not fit in the equation either (there is not even a mention of her in the game), as neither does Nae.

Ikki and Arika in some episodes. The original Japanese ending, Yappari Kimi ga Suki! (Still I Love You!) by Arika's seiyuu Eri Sendai herself, is about Arika's feelings for Ikki.

On the other hand, "Toshi Shita no Boku", the Japanese ending for Medabot Spirits, is about Ikki's crush on Nae (which is not canon to the games, admittedly).

Despite the fact that Karin is technically a member of Ikki's love triangle, she comes with her own competing suitor, Kouji. In the games, Kouji is overprotective of Karin due to her heart's condition. In the latter half of the original anime, while Kouji struggles with the fact that he and Sumilodon Can't Catch Up, Karin goes above and beyond in her efforts to help him out or cheer him upnote Though she runs smack into Unwanted Assistance in her overenthusiasm once or twice.

In the video games, there are side-quests that will produce a Relationship Upgrade for Ikki with either Arika or Karin.

Anime: The Medaforce, supposedly the strongest expression of Medabot power, is shown to be completely useless against Kilobots in the first episode of Spirits until later on.

Videogames: Ikki's KBT Medabots, in contrast to the anime where he holds dear Metabee's medal and body, in the games he mostly cares about the medal, so it's pretty much guaranteed that he will upgrade Metabee to a newer KBT model between games:

Some people tend to get confused as to whether to call Ikki's best friend Arika, Erica, or Erikanote it doesn't help that some Nelvana episodes still pronounce her name "Arika" anyway.

As with all things anime, trying to figure out what non-native words the Japanese are trying to use is often a challenge. Sumilidon, for example, would probably have been better translated as Smilodon.

Sloan, though he can get unnerved at times. Rokusho, Victor, and Kam from Spirits are more straight examples.

Rokusho does this with a mentor-like twist. However, when his friend Baton falsely says that Dr Aki killed his old master...

Straight for the Commander: The robattle win condition in the video games is to take out the enemy commander (and more specifically, the commander's Head unit), but woe unto you if you neglect to account for the enemy's support.

The Strategist: Most competent medafighters need to be this by necessity. For a Mons show for kids, it's impressively tactical.

Dr. Aki rarely gets his own pair of sunglasses off. Though this is often dismissed in the manga adaptation of the games.

The Roborobos' Sinister Shades. When things got really, really serious, they would take them off to reveal their real identities just to fight as proper medafigthers.

Super Prototype: The first Robo Emperor. It was too powerful, and stuck in storage while newly designed, nerfed versions were put into production.

Support Party Member: There exist several Medabots which cannot inflict damage, such as the healing and shielding Neutra-Nurse and Dr. Bokchoy, whose sole purpose is scanning for the location of enemies, thus detecting invisible foes and improving the accuracy of teammates.

Taking Up the Mantle: In the game universe, Ikki becomes the new Phantom Renegade in Medarot DS, as well as working at the Hop Mart, to outright placing Metabee's medal in an Arc-Beetle.

Tangled Family Tree: In the anime, Karin (who is Ikki's age) is Dr. Aki's niece, while Nae (who is Henry's age) is his granddaughter.

Theme Naming: Each one of the members of the Roborobo Gang is named after some kind of seafood. Dub-wise, the Screws all have names beginning with "S", and the Rubber-Robos have had their names changed to simple sea creatures.

Mostly noticeable in the original version of the original series, the Anime Theme Song itself and the ending appeared as tunes in the anime series. The first one pretty much when Metabee is going to have his heroic moments; the other one is listened through the episode where the school building is completely buried in snow, in a radio. Also several of the Image Songs have appeared in some moments of the series, mostly the ones of the Screws and an Ikki and Metabee duet.

The English dub also counts with the opening theme used as part of the battles' soundtrack.

In the games, they're called "The Three Laws of Medabots." A boy at Rosewood Private School indicates that Medabots are not allowed to harm humans on purpose. He wonders if that makes it okay if it happens on accident.

Time Skip: This is played between the first game (2010) and the second (2022), where twelve years have passed. And, it also happens again between Medarot 5 (the fifth game of the series) and Medarot DS/Medarot 7, with another 9-8 years.

To Be Lawful or Good: During the International Tournament Arc, Mr. Referee isn't remotely pleased to be required to uphold the new rule that requires contestants to ante their Medabots' medals each match.

To Be a Master: Double Subverted. Ikki doesn't really take an interest in such things until it turns out he's #3 in all of Japan, and even then his friends are as concerned about him becoming a master as much as he is (possibly even more so). Before that, the series was more about his episodic clashes with the Rubberrobo Gang.

In Medabot Spirits, Erika keeps a secret garden, which she doesn't want to tell anyone else about since she's afraid that (A) the boys will turn it into a Robattle arena and (B) they'll start thinking of her as a Girly Girl Tagalong Kid.

Trademark Favorite Food: Ikki and takoyaki. A one-off example is Hikaru using a watermelon to bait Metabee, who is lured in because he has a kabuto-type Medal and beetles like sweet fruits.

Transforming Mecha: While some early Medabots (like Landrotor) could transform into cars or jets, the main example of this is in Medachange.

Medachange was introduced in Medarot 3 and allowed a handful of Medabots (the newest generation of mainstay Medabots, natch) to transform into alternate modes, replacing their ability to charge the Medaforce. Some Medabots have the "Shift Transform" ability, which isn't as powerful, but has no other drawbacks, while others have the "Power Transform", which costs Medaforce.

In Medabot Spirits, Medachange works slightly differently. Most Medabots can transform into their basic alternate form, here called Action Mode (jp. Reckless Mode), which lacks all of their attack abilities it had in the game. These missing attacks are later gained when the Medabots start gaining access to Demolition Mode (jp. Crafty Mode), which is usually a heavily-weaponized alt-mode. Not all Medachange-capables have a Demolition Mode; Arcbeetle-Dash and Tyrelbeetle, for example, perform a Fusion Dance to become Master Beetle instead.

The videogames (Medarot to Medarot 7) and the manga develop between 2010-2033.

Though it is an Alternate Continuity from the original source of the franchise, the anime series is debatably happening around the 2020s in the original version (the timeline of Medarot 2 through 4, where the anime is sort-of based on, happens in that decade) but changed to the 22nd century in the English dub.

Un Reveal: When mysterious Space-Medafighter X's golden mask is split to reveal... the equally-mysterious Phantom Renegade's white mask. (Of course, the Dramatic Irony is that only the cast members are in the dark about him).

The Unfettered: Kam and his underlings deliberately invoke this in Spirits, challenging Medafighters to street brawls where the free-for-all rules include things like swapping out damaged or spent weapons for new ones as needed and attacking the enemy Medafighter directly, which takes them out of the category of Jerkass and puts them directly into Terrorist.

Unsettling Gender Reveal: Ikki, Kouji, and Kagiyama during their match against Team Sweden, who are presented as a trio of beautiful Idol Singers, but who are actually Roborobos... MALE Roborobos. UGLY male Roborobos.

Verbal Tic: This is applied in both versions of the anime, but it's more noticeable in the Japanese one with the Rubber-Robo Gang, since they usually end their sentences with the word "robo".

The original Medarot game for Game Boy was released as Medarot: Perfect Edition for the Bandai's WonderSwan in 1999 and Medarot: True Type (or Shingata: Medarot) for the Game Boy Advance in 2004 (with whole different characters and redesigns, and whole different graphics and music compared to its original game, using the engine of Medarot 2 CORE).

Medarot 2, originally released on the Game Boy Color, got this treatment too, released as Medarot 2 CORE in 2002/2003 for the GBA. This version was one of the only games to make it to western shores, under the names Medabots: Metabee Version and Medabots: Rokusho Version. It should be noted that the remake is also a Recursive Adaptation, integrating bits and pieces from the anime back into the story.

Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Kam, from Medabot Spirits, who in the first five episodes or so of the show uses his Kilobots to destroy Medabot medals, and even has one chase Nae's truck with the heroes inside, actually shooting at the vehicle the whole time... making him both a serial killer and a terrorist.

Played straight with the Screws gang in the original anime series. They were major threats to Ikki in the first two episodes, and quickly devolved into mostly punching bags for other Medafighters including Ikki for the rest of the series.

Inverted for the Rubberrobo gang in the anime. While the recurring four members (Seaslug, Gillgirl, Squidguts, Shrimplips) remained largely comedic in their roles, they also remained just as difficult for Ikki to overcome. In fact once it is revealed that Dr. Meta-evil is in charge and had world domination plans, their threat level goes up.

Villains Out Shopping: Near the end of the World Tournament, the Phantom Renegade interrupts an argument between the Screws. He happens to be riding a bike with some groceries in the basket, suggesting he'd been out shoppin in full Renegade regalia.

This is the basis of the friendship between Ikki and Metabee in the anime, since they often fight as if they were siblings.

In the first manga adaptation, Hikaru and his Metabee act more as friends or siblings, instead of an owner and their pet.

Wave-Motion Gun: Several Medabots have this attack. A prime example is Arc-Beetle's signature attack, the Prominence. The Medaforce also acts like this.

What Happened to the Mouse?: In the introductory episode, the Rubberrobo gang and Phantom Renegade clash over the medal that Ikki would later find in the river, but no details are given over the man who was transporting the medal or why he was in the first place.

Wild Card: Phantom Renegade's goal is to steal all rare medals, usually bringing him into conflict with the Rubberrobo gang, but he's also got his eyes on Metabee, whom he tolerates due to the growing bond Ikki shares with him. While his true allegiances are revealed by the end of the first season, Nelvana released an out-of-order episode in the second season where he was still in his wildcard phase, causing the scratch of many a head.

Wild Take: Taken over the top at times. Ikki freaking out over Kouji being above him in the national rankings is a good example.

Wrong Genre Savvy: Upon meeting Dr. Aki and asking him to help train, Ikki and Metabee are asked to clean his house. Ikki believes they are acting The Karate Kid, the chores they do are actually fighting moves. When they enter an actual battle, Dr. Aki states it was just dirty and he needed cleaning, even asking Ikki how he thought cleaning had anything to do with a fight between two robots.

You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: In Episode 51, Dr. Meta-Evil fired his henchmen and said that he only used them to have all the world's Medabots dominate the earth.

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